Biden’s ‘Plan’ for Central America

[Right To Left]

This one goes out to all the idiot warhawks and rightwing border loons who are calling Brainless Joe (and actual president - Kamala) 'soft on communism' and Latin American regimes that are supposed to follow orders from Washington:

 

Biden’s ‘Plan’ for Central America

The plan, which is praised by right-wing regional leaders, seeks to end restrictions on foreign domination of industries and markets, Ben Norton reports.  March 10, 2021

The Biden administration has prioritized Central America in its foreign policy, developing a comprehensive plan that pledges $4 billion in funding for the impoverished region, along with foreign corporate investment, in return for aggressive neoliberal “free market” reforms.

According to the Biden administration’s program, Central American governments will be required to cut protections for workers, ensure “that labor practices do not disadvantage competition,” reinforce “free trade” agreements with the United States, and “reduc[e] the barriers to private sector investment,” to allow U.S.  corporations more control over the region.

The plan is also explicitly aimed at isolating China and Russia in a bid to consolidate Washington’s control over the region.

Right-wing leaders in Central America have praised the initiative while urging the Biden administration to go further in undermining the region’s last remaining left-wing state, the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

During a Feb. 17 event at a U.S.  government-funded think tank called the Inter-American Dialogue, conservative ex-presidents, vice presidents, and foreign ministers from Central American nations applauded the strategy, which is known informally as the “Biden Plan” or, in Spanish, “Plan Biden.”

The Biden administration’s approach is most immediately aimed at limiting immigration of Central American refugees to the United States. It earned its nickname as “Plan Biden” because it is modeled on another policy the president oversaw during his days in the Senate.

That was Plan Colombia, a counter-insurgency program imposed on Colombia which fueled extreme violence, leading to thousands of deaths and millions of refugees, while exacerbating poverty and inequality in the country.

Grayzone Editor Max Blumenthal investigated the extensive damage that Biden’s neoliberal policies have already wreaked on Central America, when he served as vice president and the point man for the region in the Barack Obama administration. Now that he is president, Biden is repurposing the Obama-era policies and expanding them.

‘Shared Vision’

Following the event at the Inter-American Dialogue, right-wing Central American politicians who participated published a statement declaring that they were “encouraged” by Plan Biden, insisting it will be “mutually beneficial” and part of a “shared vision between the United States government and the Central American region” that will isolate Washington’s adversaries.

 

read the rest at: The Grayzone 

So, in actual fact, not much changes in foreign policy when either D's or R's have the ball!  The same game of colonization and wealth extraction are played, with the local despots who run Latin American countries being the only ones who will benefit!  Whenever a country's leaders don't quite follow orders specifically....even if they are just trying to provide some of the benefits to their own people (Manuel Zelaya forcibly removed in Honduras by Hillary Clinton's orders in 2011, and replaced by a rich narco-trafficker who wanted to be president instead, but had no popular support - Juan Orlando Hernandez

 

[OftenWrong]

Maybe you are not reading that article very carefully.

18 hours ago, Right To Left said:

The Biden administration’s approach is most immediately aimed at limiting immigration of Central American refugees to the United States. It earned its nickname as “Plan Biden” because it is modeled on another policy the president oversaw during his days in the Senate.

That was Plan Colombia, a counter-insurgency program imposed on Colombia which fueled extreme violence, leading to thousands of deaths and millions of refugees, while exacerbating poverty and inequality in the country.

Hoorah for plan Biden?

[Right To Left]

On 3/12/2021 at 11:13 AM, OftenWrong said:

Maybe you are not reading that article very carefully.

Hoorah for plan Biden?

YOu find murder and causing internal and external refugee crisis to be something to cheer for? Are you a psychopath, or does your fortress america narcissism lead to the attitude that the lives of everyone outside your borders doesn't matter?  Next question would be - do you really give a shit about anyone else, even within your borders?

[herbie]

Attack Venezuela

They could invoke every dam Yank slogan from "regime change" to "saving the people from communism". Easy to get to, too far away for China or Russia to do dick shit, already in disarray, half their army would defect to the US side and it's just full of goddam oil.

What more could America want?

[OftenWrong]

6 hours ago, Right To Left said:

YOu find murder and causing internal and external refugee crisis to be something to cheer for? Are you a psychopath, or does your fortress america narcissism lead to the attitude that the lives of everyone outside your borders doesn't matter?  Next question would be - do you really give a shit about anyone else, even within your borders?

You are wrong again. I support Trump's approach to the border, and this article you've posted proves it to be the more humane way. That is what I'm talking about. How you got into that corner in your thoughts is not my problem.

[Right To Left]

16 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

You are wrong again. I support Trump's approach to the border, and this article you've posted proves it to be the more humane way. That is what I'm talking about. How you got into that corner in your thoughts is not my problem.

How is Trump's approach any different from Biden's approach....inflammatory rhetoric aside?

[OftenWrong]

On 3/14/2021 at 3:56 PM, Right To Left said:

How is Trump's approach any different from Biden's approach....inflammatory rhetoric aside?

Biden's policies have made migrants vulnerable to being controlled by criminal gangs, the drug cartels. People are the new, illegal commodity.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-mexico-exclusive-idUSKBN2B21D8

 

[Right To Left]

17 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

Biden's policies have made migrants vulnerable to being controlled by criminal gangs, the drug cartels. People are the new, illegal commodity.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-mexico-exclusive-idUSKBN2B21D8

 

And everything was so much better when President Combover was sitting behind the big desk in the Oval Office....right??

Trump’s Border Policies Strengthen Organized Crime. Here’s How.

2018 BY STEVEN DUDLEY

The Trump administration’s policy, however, is shortsighted, in part because research shows that it may, in the long run, strengthen criminal groups.

Here are five ways that happens:  (bullet points only)

1. It Pushes People Into the Illegal Market

2. It Raises the Price for Criminal Services

3. It Sets the Table for Future Criminal Activity

4. It Destroys Trust Between Authorities and Migrant Communities Where Organized Crime and Gangs are Prevalent

5. It Reduces Remittances, Which Could Increase Crime Rates

 

Make of this link....likely from some CIA or State Dept. funded propagandist mouthpiece what you will! I'm just posting it up to make the point that the same arguments were being made by the same people before Brainless Joe took over the role of president.

[OftenWrong]

19 hours ago, Right To Left said:

And everything was so much better when President Combover was sitting behind the big desk in the Oval Office....right??

Trump’s Border Policies Strengthen Organized Crime. Here’s How.

2018 BY STEVEN DUDLEY

The Trump administration’s policy, however, is shortsighted, in part because research shows that it may, in the long run, strengthen criminal groups.

Here are five ways that happens:  (bullet points only)

1. It Pushes People Into the Illegal Market

2. It Raises the Price for Criminal Services

3. It Sets the Table for Future Criminal Activity

4. It Destroys Trust Between Authorities and Migrant Communities Where Organized Crime and Gangs are Prevalent

5. It Reduces Remittances, Which Could Increase Crime Rates

People are already looking for the illegal market to get across. They need to get across Mexico first. Trump admin put pressure on the Mexicans to ensure they would accommodate those inside the Mexican border who were trying to get to the USA. The battle then turned to Mexico's south border instead.

Key issue is what to do with the kids. Right now there are thousands of unaccompnaied minors, because that's what they familes are doing. Sending their children out alone into the world, to get into the US.

Quote

CNN reported Monday that the number of unaccompanied migrant children in US Border Patrol facilities, which are akin to jail cells and not intended for kids, has reached dramatic highs, according to internal agency documents reviewed by CNN, underscoring the urgent challenge facing the Biden administration.

The Dems have opened up a pandora's box with their irresponsible statements about the border, creating a disaster. Kids in jails again, just likethe goold old days under Obama. Now they're working hard to cover it up in the media.

[Right To Left]

3 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

People are already looking for the illegal market to get across. They need to get across Mexico first. Trump admin put pressure on the Mexicans to ensure they would accommodate those inside the Mexican border who were trying to get to the USA. The battle then turned to Mexico's south border instead.

Key issue is what to do with the kids. Right now there are thousands of unaccompnaied minors, because that's what they familes are doing. Sending their children out alone into the world, to get into the US.

The Dems have opened up a pandora's box with their irresponsible statements about the border, creating a disaster. Kids in jails again, just likethe goold old days under Obama. Now they're working hard to cover it up in the media.

Mexico and Guatemala Tighten Borders for Possible Migrant Caravans

February 18, 2021

 

On February 15, the Embassy of Mexico in Guatemala posted a tweet announcing the Government of Mexico would not allow migrant caravans to enter, saying, “Mexico does not promote, nor allow the irregular entry of migrant caravans into national territory.” (Translated from Spanish to English.)

Mexico’s warning follows information from Guatemalan intelligence sources of a tentative U.S.-bound migrant caravan possibly originating from Honduras. Last week, the Government of Guatemala held a meeting between immigration, law enforcement, and intelligence agency heads to address the possible caravan.

 

So, once again, what the hell is the difference between Biden Admin policy and the shit Trump was doing...aside from rearranging the deck chairs on the USS Titanic?

The crux of the problem in Central America goes back centuries to the beginning of the American Empire's commercial expansion and exploitation of southern territories it decided it had regional sovereignty over....expanded Manifest Destiny or some bullshit flagwaving rhetoric. While the modern crisis lands mostly on the Bush/Obama Administration which went about regime changing governments for frivolous reasons after failing to take back Venezuela for US oil companies. 

For example, the 2009 CIA-organized military coup in Honduras against the elected government of Manuel Zelaya came as a result of Zelaya acting on a campaign promise to institute a minimum wage for Honduran workers. And needless to say, Big AG and the builders of new high end luxury resorts weren't happy about having to pay slightly more in wages that would take pennies off of their profit margins! So, they sent their lobbyists to go squawking to the White House and Capitol Hill. The result was spineless centrist Democrat Obama sending Sec. of State - Queen Hillary out to organize the coup that literally loaded the soon-to-be former Honduran president to be taken away in exile, while an interim government, responsibly managed by a military general who was also a major cocaine trafficker in his sideline job, put his boot down on any non-compliant peasants and workers who were trying to organize unions. Honduras soon created the highest per capita murder rate in the world...outstripping conflict zones in Africa, the Middle East etc.. AND that's how you get a refugee crisis at your door!

Ever since then, Obama finished out his 2nd term doing nothing of substance, and smiling and waving at cameras, while Trump came in with big talk about building a big wall...that hardly got started....let alone finished, and allowed DHS and Border Security to run the same lethal and often murderous tactics that were already underway when Obama was in the White House...."kids in cages" be damned! 

And now that America has Brainless Joe in charge, just like every other domestic and foreign issue, nothing changes....except for the window dressing! Kids are locked in small portables instead of dog cages...so I guess that's a step up according to some. It doesn't offer the same opportunities for pictures!

[OftenWrong]

I already explained to you what the difference is. Right now it's a debacle on the border, according to the press. Biden invited hundreds of thousands to come across, and they are doing that, and sending unaccompanied children. All children are now being put in makeshift detention centers. There are thousands of them, and no plan was put in place before the president made the invite.

Uncle Joe invited them to come over, but guess what, that was a lie. Now he has reversed himself with his statement to migrants today, "don't come over." That's got them all confused. Under Donald Trump there was no confusion.

[DogOnPorch]

Biden's plan is to strip the best and the brightest folks from these countries and get them to work gathering golf balls and cleaning floors as God intended.